The U.S. Arctic Research Commission is meeting in Alaska this week and focused on mental health during the group’s first day of meetings in Nome.

In a small gathering at Nome’s mini convention center Tuesday morning, commissioners heard testimony about the mental health services available in the Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, and the Northwest Arctic regions—and some sobering statistics as to the very real challenges residents face.

Chief among them: suicide and other issues related to violence that impact primarily young people, specifically, young men. It’s similar pattern seen across the Arctic, researchers said, and it’s a pattern Lisa Ellanna, the Wellness Director of Maniilaq Assocation, said is tied to the recent history and loss of identity of Native peoples. She summarized how that history plays out today:

“A lot of communities see suicide, domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol, substance use, those things, as symptoms of a larger, deeper issue,” she told the commission. “[It’s] related to colonization, related to historical trauma. To the decades of discrimination, decades of oppression, marginalization. These things are kind of manifestations of that long-term being held down as a people.”

Mental health professionals presented findings said they’re not just studying the causes—but also working on practical solutions. In addition to substance abuse treatment, therapy, and other services on offer at Norton Sound Health Corporation and Manilaq in the Northwest Arctic, researchers said simple steps can reduce a young person’s risk of suicide and other violence.

Lisa Wexler, a researcher from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst studying public health and suicide in the Arctic, pointed to Alaska’s long summers—when both free time and subsistence are abundant—as a time when suicide can peak, but also when communities can step in and help undo the damage of the past.

“Subsistence is expensive. So you have a lot of people who can’t get on the land in the summer, during those peak subsistence times,” Wexler said. “There’s a lot of young people in the summer who are attempting suicide. So you can think about employment programs, you can think about different ways to allow them to have access to subsistence, or have access to different kinds of opportunities that might be important for them in growing that identity, that sense of purpose.”

Mental health for Arctic residents isn’t just a moral or social imperative, however; Ella Anagick with the Bering Sea Alliance said it’s an economic imperative as well. Representing a group of seven village corporations in the region, Anagick said part of the mental health solution is offering real economic opportunity. And she said that means investment.

“Our nation is in dire need of infrastructure development in the Bering Straits. And we have the land base. Wales is at the choke point, across from Russia,” Anagick said, referring to the small community of about 150 people at the western tip of the Seward Peninsula, posed right along the Bering Strait.

“We have the land base to be able to facilitate and meet not only the needs of our local areas but also the national needs, and that is why we’d like to work with the federal agencies.”

Fran Ulmer, the former state lawmaker and lieutenant governor who now chairs the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, said the 4 million people living in the circumpolar north demand the discussion about the Arctic’s future include not only talk of ports and climate change, but also a path to wellness and mental health.

“What we have heard by talking to people not just in Alaska, but in Russia, in Canada, and in Greenland, that behavioral and mental health is a growing problem,” Ulmer said.

“We are here today in Nome to get a better understanding of how research can contribute to this problem. What are the methodologies, what are the ways in which the research investments that are made, can actually contribute to some longer-term solutions?”

The Arctic Research Commission has a final full day in Nome today Wednesday.

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared online that incorrectly identified Lisa Ellanna as a member of Kawerak Wellness. Ellana is the Wellness Director of the Maniilaq Assocation, and the above text reflects this correction.

City expenses are up. State and federal funding is down. And the City passed a budget Tuesday night that will put only $4,800 in Nome’s savings account this upcoming fiscal year.

Amid these tight economics, the City is looking for ways to generate revenue, and the Nome Community Alcohol Safety Team has a solution: raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco from 5-percent to 8-percent.

Nome City Clerk, Tom Moran, explained what that increase would mean for customers: “The way is goes now is Hanson’s and AC and Bonanza and Nome Liquor Store and all the other places that sell tobacco and liquor impose a 5-percent sales tax. So if you were spending $5.00 on a can of chewing tobacco, you’d pay $5.25 at Bonanza to acquire it. And if it went to 8-percent, instead of $5.25, you’d be paying $5.40 on a can of chewing tobacco.”

Moran said raising taxes on alcohol alone is projected to raise $150,000 in additional revenue for the City. That projection is based on alcohol tax collection data from fiscal year 2012. That money would help fund City departments like the ambulance and police force, services often responding to alcohol-related instances.

More than a revenue generator, the Community Alcohol Safety Team is pushing the tax hike as a social issue. Lisa Ellanna Strickling is the Team’s Coalition Coordinator.

Strickling explained how the higher tax would help youths in the community: “Increasing alcohol taxes and tobacco taxes makes alcohol and tobacco less accessible to youth. And the longer you delay youth and their first use and exposure to alcohol use, the less likely they are to have that as a problem in their lives and the less likely they are to get into other substances. Because alcohol is now seen as the gateway drug.”

Thanks to you, our broadcasts feature a wide variety of news, information, and music, including specialty shows from dedicated, local volunteers.

One such volunteer, Lisa Ellanna Strickling, hosts a one-hour music show on Thursday afternoons, showcasing the wide diversity of Native American and Alaska Native musics; it’s a listener favorite.

Recently, Lisa’s show had a special guest: flutist and singer Cody Blackbird (pictured). His live music was just the latest example of the special moments your support helps create for our listeners. Thanks!

The weekly show of community deejay Lisa Ellanna Strickling – Thursdays at 1pm – has quickly become a favorite for KNOM listeners, and with good reason.

Lisa pours her heart and her extensive knowledge of music into each of her shows, which focus on the Native musical traditions of Alaska and the United States in general.

Playing Native music – that of Alaska Native cultures, in particular – is one of KNOM’s oldest and most essential traditions. Earlier this year (on Halloween), Lisa’s show brought a new, and very welcome, addition to our Native music, as she featured the live singing of Fawn White and her brother, Woody White, who shared with Lisa and our listeners the musical traditions of the Native American tribes in which they were raised: the Cherokee and Ponca (PONK-uh) tribes of Oklahoma.

Fawn and Woody, pictured with Lisa at right, also sang songs from the Kiowa (KIGH-oh-wuh) and Choctaw traditions, and we know that their songs made a special moment for many of our listeners. Thank you for making shows like this possible.

Hear this show! In this longer edit (41 minutes – download), Fawn and Woody talk with Lisa about their personal and family histories, growing up within the cultural and faith traditions of the Cherokee and Ponca tribes of Oklahoma:

Thanks to your support, the KNOM Radio Mission continues to mean so many different things to so many different people.

For many of our listeners, KNOM is a primary source of music: not just popular music but, also, the traditional music of Alaska Natives. Native culture is fundamental both to our mission and to our daily broadcasts, which is why we’re so thrilled to have Nome resident Lisa Ellanna Strickling as one of our volunteer community DJs.

Every Thursday afternoon, Lisa volunteers an hour of her time to play Native music on KNOM. As we detail in our Thursday program schedule, Lisa presents “a cross-section of songs, both contemporary and traditional, from different Native cultures, and she brings a special focus to the peoples of Alaska, the Arctic, and the North.” Native music holds such an important place in the traditional culture of our region, and we know that – thanks to your support! – Lisa’s show inspires countless listeners each week.